Brought to you by Seahorse magazine, Scuttlebutt Europe is a digest of sailing news and opinions, regatta results, new boat and gear information and letters from sailors -- with a European emphasis. Contributions welcome, send to

Struntje Light Clinches World Title In Final Race Of Farr 40 Championship Chicago, IL, USA: The culmination of the 2018 Farr 40 World Championship served up nail-biting competition, coming down to the final race of the event as Wolfgang Schaefer's Struntje light edged out Alex Roeper's Plenty who finished a critical two boats behind nullifying their two-point lead. One of the two boats was the Corinthian Champion, Leif Sigmond and Marcus Thymian's Norboy, capping-off a dominant performance over the Corinthian fleet.

The final day of racing at the 2018 Farr 40 World Championship saw the least amount of breeze and flattest water with unseasonably warm temperatures for fall in Chicago. With southerly winds dipping below 10 knots, teams who excelled in the lighter conditions established themselves early.

Struntje light and Plenty entered the day tied at 27 points. The German boat established themselves early, seemingly putting the Championship title in the bag after Race One as they moved up the standings three points ahead of Plenty. However, all plans were cut short when they finished a brutal ninth place in the second race, preventing early celebrations and handing the lead to Plenty.

Elsewhere in the fleet, Chicago natives Helmut and Evan Jahn's Flash Gordon 6 came in for a dominating first place finish in Race Two to finish in third place. It was a come-from-behind move as Alberto Rossi's Enfant Terrible had had a firm grip on the fleet from strong finishes in the first two days of the. Unfortunately for the Italians, they didn't excel in the shifty air that Flash Gordon 6 is accustomed to in their home port. The duo ended the event tied at 53 points with the Jahns having just enough bullets to secure their place on the podium.

This prestigious competition, also known as the "Helmsman's Cup" was first awarded in 1947 and sees sixteen of Ireland's best sailors battle it out to become the "champion of champions". Each competitor is nominated by their class, but they all compete in the same type of boat, this year chosen as the SB20.

Peter, who was nominated by the SB20 Class, is a former Olympian sailor who represented Ireland in both Seoul 1998 and Barcelona 1992.

His name now joins the Helmsman's Cup Trophy alongside other Olympic veterans such as Mark Mansfield and Mark Lyttle.

Final results: were Peter Kennedy (Strangford Lough YC) with crew Stephen Kane, and boat owner representative Chris Chapman; in second place were Alex Barry (Royal Cork YC/Monkstown Bay Sailing Club) who represented the RS400s with crew Mel Collins and boat owner representative John McGonigle, and in third place was Ross Kearney representing the GP14s (Royal North of Ireland YC) with crew Jim Hunt and boat owner representative Peter Lee.

Full results are available on the Irish Sailing website here: bit.ly/2DP8w1V

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2018 Star World Championship racing postponed until tomorrow Another day with no racing on the Choptank River for the 2018 Star World Championship hosted by Tred Avon Yacht Club in Oxford, Maryland. The morning presented with a little more breeze than yesterday so the Committee boat eagerly docked out and called the fleet for a 12,00 start. Once on the racecourse, though, the wind never properly settled and after a two hours' waiting under the unusually for the season warm sun, the PRO Bill Stump, sent everyone back ashore postponing the first race of the 2018 Star World Championship to tomorrow, yet again.

Tomorrow, on Race Day 3 of the 2018 Star World Championship, the Race Committee and competitions will make another attempt at racing. First warning for Race 1 will be at 12,00 and Race 2 is scheduled to follow. Local sailor Alan Campbell seems optimistic that racing will finally begin on day 3. "I think it will still be a bit light tomorrow but the cloud cover should hold and we will see a gradient breeze throughout the day. I think it will be sailable conditions."

The 62 teams and the local organizers will find some peace to their frustration tonight at the Gala dinner tonight at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, where they will enjoy a proper taste of Maryland hospitality.

World Sailing Responds to Joe Bainton: Letter from Kim Andersen I write further to your letter of 19 September 2018, received 30 September 2018.

We have written to you to verify that the letter is a bona fide letter from your firm, as the copy of the letter forwarded to us was unsigned. If it is bona fide we asked you to confirm the name of your client, or if you had written on your own account. We have received no response to our letter so consider that we must write to correct the statements in your letter.

The comments you make in your letter are inaccurate, misleading and are an incorrect reading of our accounts and Constitution. The World Sailing Board is very surprised that a qualified lawyer has made these public statements that are damaging to the reputation of World Sailing and it is our duty to correct them:

1. There is no such entity as "World Sailing Marketing".

2. World Sailing Limited's financial year is 31 December. As such, the 2018 financial statements demanded by you do not exist for obvious reasons. The 2017 audited statements (including all subsidiary accounts) were approved by the Board in May 2018, provided to our Council, and published on our website.

3. The pattern of the income and deficits across an Olympic quadrennial cycle is not new. Since 1997, World Sailing has Olympic receipts received and recognised as income in the first year of the quadrennial and then has deficits in the next 2 – 3 years depending on the timing of the next receipt of income from the IOC. World Sailing finances are planned on a 4-year cycle. Accounting standards require the income from the IOC to be recognised in the year it is earned and received

Had any research been conducted into our published financial statements, you would have seen see that this is the case.

4. You appear to have failed to understand that the financial information you have based your analysis on, is the consolidated financial information and therefore the proposition that the deficits of World Sailing Event Management, as a subsidiary, should increase the number reported is fundamentally flawed.

The information provided is always on a group or consolidated basis as anything else would be misleading and not reflect the correct picture. Your assertion that there are no projected profits or losses merely confirms this lack of understanding of the basics of accounting.

As is common with group company arrangements, WSEM is funded with inter-company loans.

5, You write that World Sailing must comply with Article 94 of its Constitution. It will do so this week when the Notice of AGM is issued and the 2017 audited statutory accounts will be circulated to MNAs at that time ready for their reading at the AGM.

Finally, I can assure you the World Sailing Board takes its duties under Isle of Man law as company directors very seriously. The Board meets monthly and receives a full report on the finances and affairs of the group companies. A full financial report has also been provided to Council at an extraordinary meeting ahead of its November meeting as well.

World Sailing reserves its right to take any action that it deems necessary as a consequence of your misleading public statements.

Yours sincerely, Kim Andersen, Presidenf

Tall Ships Youth Trust Launches New Flagship Appeal at St James's Palace The Tall Ships Youth Trust, which offers young people, many of whom disadvantaged or disabled, life changing experiences at sea, launched its New Flagship Appeal at St James's Palace this week.

The reception event, hosted by The Duke of York – Patron of The Tall Ships Youth Trust, launched the new Appeal to raise funds for the purchase of a new flagship vessel akin to the Schooners the Trust owned 60 years ago.

The Tall Ships Youth Trust is the UK's oldest and largest sail training charity supporting more than 1,200 people each year. Beneficiaries face challenges including learning difficulties, hearing or visual impairments or behavioural, emotional and social difficulties. It also enables young carers, youth offending units and other individuals not in employment, education or training to benefit from the experience of life on ocean going vessels.

The Trust's current fleet includes four Challenger Yachts, a Catamaran and a Ketch which all provide a safe, physically and mentally challenging setting for people of all ages and abilities. In total, it is estimated that the Trust has helped 117,000 beneficiaries and sailed more than 2 million nautical miles, enough to go around the world nearly one hundred times.

It is hoped the purchase of the new vessel will enable the Trust to change the lives of thousands more young people by more than doubling the capacity they can take on the life changing voyages each year.

To help give more young people life changing experiences, please send donations to Tall Ships Youth Trust, 2A The Hard, PO1 3PT or text TSYT01 £5 to 70070 (the donation will be added to your phone bill) or donate online at tallships.org

Really, truly this time? Many people have tried, including several of those involved in the latest initiative, to deliver a professional and engaging sailboat race circuit. But teams don't come better qualified than this one and Act 1 in Bermuda was none too shabby. A good time to build on it then… James Boyd grills Russell Coutts about SailGP

Eleven and a half years ago, a few months before the 32nd America's Cup in Valencia, the press were invited to Lisbon to hear from Russell Coutts and Paul Cayard about a new sailing circuit called the World Sailing League, backed to the tune of 30 million euros by a Portuguese sports promoter. The circuit would be a global series of grand prix, in 70ft one-design VPLP-designed catamarans with a US$5million prize purse. Given that at the time we were supposed to be getting excited about the latest Version 5 leadmines soon to be unveiled in Valencia, this new circuit for ultra-fast boats, supported by two of the biggest names in sailing, was a breath of fresh air.

Sadly the World Sailing League never materialised and it is perhaps for this reason that one of the worst-kept secrets in modern-day sailing is only being formally revealed now, just four months out from its first event.

Thanks to the entity formerly known as ISAF changing its name to World Sailing, 'World' was no longer an option and Coutts's new circuit is to be called SailGP. The boats will be fully one-design, heavily enhanced versions of the AC50 flying catamarans and have been christened F50.

RORC Admiral Wants Action on 'Cheating' in Sailing The Admiral of the Royal Ocean Racing Club in London, Andrew McIrvine, has written to the President of World Sailing, Kim Anderson, seeking action from the World body over the prevalence of 'cheating' in sailing that he maintains is becoming 'a major disincentive to going racing at many levels'.

In a strongly worded letter, McIrivne, who is also the Secretary General of the International Maxi Association, says the 'culture' of 'it's not cheating unless you are caught' is becoming increasingly prevalent.

He claims it is a particular problem among some sailing 'professionals' who, he says, have a 'more desperate need to win to maintain their livelihood'.

McIrvine's letter laments the fact that the 'sport used to be largely self-policing and honourable. Sadly, he says, 'those days are long gone and it must now become a major function of World Sailing to police the sport effectively'.

The RORC Chief says he wants the World Sailing organisation to take a much firmer line in trying to stamp out the culture. 'This will involve commitment from above down; all the way from the Executive to individual race organising authorities'" he says.

Colin Smith It is with sadness and yet real gratitude for his life that we report that Colin Smith, sailor, Olympian and coach extraordinaire, passed away in late September shortly after reaching his 90th birthday. He retained his great spirits all the way, and no doubt reported as usual that he is "delightful" when he arrived wherever he is now.

Colin was born in Adelaide in 1928 and learned to sail and build boats at Grange, where his early sailing experience included Heavyweight Sharpies and a stint as a bailer boy on a traditional 18 foot skiff. He then fell victim of the offshore addiction and Sydney Hobarts (9 of them, and 22+ Bass Strait crossings in total) and other long distance races around Australia became a feature for the family. In the 1960s the small boat bug returned, in the form of a Flying Dutchman in which he won the South Australian Champs with Graham Williams in 1968, and shortly thereafter, he moved to Hong Kong and represented the colony in the 1972 Munich Olympics in the Flying Dutchman class, with his lifelong mate Bill Steele.

In the 1980s Colin moved back to Australia where he took his coaching qualifications, and in 1982 was appointed Australian National Sailing Coach; he had instant success coaching the 1982 Fireball Class world champions Chris Tillett and Mike Rogers, amongst other international successes in 505s, 470s, and Lightweight Sharpies. He was the Australian Olympic sailing coach for the 470s and Finns that competed in Los Angeles in 1984 and in Seoul in 1988, and was the Grand Master Champion of the Tasar Class in Australia in 1991. After this, he returned to take care of unfinished business in Hong Kong, where he cruised his much-loved yacht "Rapid" on adventures all around Asia, Australia and the South Pacific, also managing to fit in a win of the China Sea Race with Henry Kaye.

In 1992 he returned to coaching as the National Coach of Hong Kong, where he met and married Mei Han Cheung who was to be his partner for the rest of his life. Colin coached the HK team (including Mei Han, Chun Mei Tung, Fajai Chan and Andy Service) at the 1996 Olympics, and continued coaching Hong Kong sailors for the next 20 years, across Asian Games and World Championships in 420s, 470s, and Etchells.

It is possibly in the Etchells Class that he will be best remembered around the world, as an energetic and enthusiastic coach with time for everybody no matter where they finished. He had an amazing gift for being able to spot something from off the boat and comment on it relative to other boats' setups, and to communicate thoughts and advice in a way that was unerringly helpful without being interfering. His eye for detail was tremendous. For the last years he was a regular feature on the committee boat at the RHKYC, snapping photos at starts and during the race and sharing them with the fleet for discussion afterwards. The HK Fleet annual award for the Most Improved boat will from now on be the Colin Smith Trophy.

Although sailing was a huge part of Colin's life, he was also a highly valued communications technician at work, and was a much-loved Dad, grandfather, and great-grandfather, building Oppies for the kids, teaching them to swim, and taking them on sailing adventures.

Colin was adored by his friends and family, respected by his competitors, and revered by his disciples. We will all sorely miss him.

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